Disposable and durable articles require many specific material properties needed to provide desired performance functions, which are often difficult to provide using conventional methods of manufacture. For example, disposable absorbent articles, such as baby diapers, have many designs providing desired product performance in collecting and retaining urine and bowel movement (BM) without leaking outside the diaper. These functions need to be performed together with other functions in providing certain comfort to a wearer or user of the diaper during application, wear and disposal of the diaper. Comfort can be affected by effective functions of collecting and separating the exudates from the skin of the wearer, by providing a good initial fit of the diaper around the wearer and maintaining the fit during the use so the diaper does not sag and leak when becomes loaded with exudates.
Good fit around the body of the wearer is generally provided by creating elasticized areas in certain locations of the diaper. Examples of such elasticized areas include elastic leg cuffs, elastic waistband, elastic side panels, and others. The desired elastic properties in such areas are normally provided by various techniques, which generally include creation of composite materials by laminating elastic materials with nonwoven substrates. The elastic materials typically include an elastic film, single or multiple elastic strands, an elastic scrim, and the like. The elastic materials are typically bonded to nonwoven substrates by adhesives, thermal bonding, ultrasonic bonding, pressure bonding, and the like. However, this practice is expensive because it generally needs substantial amounts of elastic materials, which generally are considerably more expensive than nonwoven materials. Because elastic materials are typically bonded with nonwoven materials, the cost includes both the cost of adhesives and the cost of adhesive operations. Further, prior to the bonding of the elastic materials to the non-woven substrates, the elastic materials typically require process operations to form the elastic materials into desired sizes and shapes. Such operations can be called secondary operations and often include un-winding, feeding, cutting, slitting, gluing, and the like. Due to the physical properties of elastic materials, they are often difficult to handle, often requiring special modifications to make a specific elastic material process-friendly, i.e., easier to handle. Furthermore, these secondary operations often result in waste of elastic materials in the form of trim and/or scrap.
Further, with respect to the elasticized areas of the diaper, these areas often require profiled elasticity (varying elasticity), which is often difficult to provide. Examples of profiled areas of elasticity can include side panels, elastic waists, and leg elastic cuffs, providing both comfort and sustained fit.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide elasticized materials, comprising reduced amounts of elastic materials. Further, it would be beneficial to provide elasticized materials, production of which does not require the use of secondary operations. Further, it would be beneficial to provide elasticized materials having varying degrees of elasticity in desired areas of the product.
Good comfort during the wear and use of the diaper can be generally provided by use of breathable materials comprising the diaper. For example the outer cover of the diaper can be vapor permeable. Further, the diaper can be designed to have breathable, but liquid impervious elasticized cuffs around the legs; breathable elasticized waist; breathable elasticized side panels; and breathable but liquid-impervious backing layer. This is generally accomplished by bonding thermoplastic materials, like porous or nonporous films, scrims, or strands to a nonwoven substrate. Again, this approach incurs more cost for thermoplastic materials and secondary operations. Further, one important attribute of breathability is providing a varying degree of breathability in desired areas of the article. This is difficult and expensive to accomplish in utilizing the lamination technology. Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide breathable materials having varying degrees of breathability and comprising reduced amount of thermoplastic materials and which do not require the use of secondary operations described above.
Further, a disposable diaper that provides functions of collecting and retaining urine and BM without leakage outside the diaper requires a fastening system to allow for desired closure of the article around torso of the wearer. Examples of fastening systems include hook-and-loop fastener systems and adhesive tape fastening systems, which require substantial mass of thermoplastic material to provide desired material physical properties such as strength and stiffness. Another example of a fastening system includes the slot and tab fastener requiring specific shape or configuration, which is difficult to provide utilizing the lamination technology. Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide a material of the desired shape comprising less mass of thermoplastic material and does not require the secondary operations, described above.
Further, the fastening systems require varying degrees of stiffness and strength for both functional and comfort purposes. This is difficult to accomplish using the lamination technology because, as above, it requires more thermoplastic material and secondary operations. Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide a material having variable degree of stiffness and strength in specific areas comprising less mass of thermoplastic material and which does not require the secondary operations, as described above.
Further, the comfort of the wearer is affected by the surface texture of the material contacting the skin of the wearer and/or caregiver, as well as aesthetic appearance of the material itself. This is difficult to accomplish using lamination technology. In addition, it requires additional thermoplastic materials and secondary operations to mask undesirable characteristics of material surfaces. For example, an outer cover, which comprises a nonwoven web laminated to the outer surface of a thermoplastic film, provides a cloth-like appearance of the outer cover. Another example includes tapes comprising a nonwoven web laminated to the outer surface of a thermoplastic film to provide a cloth-like appearance. Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide a material having a desired surface texture and aesthetic appearance comprising less mass of thermoplastic material and which does not require secondary operations, as described above.
With respect to durable articles, the desired material properties such as elasticity, breathability, stiffness, strength and the like are difficult to provide using conventional manufacturing techniques including sewing, ultrasonic welding, and the like, of expensive fabrics having the desired properties. As disclosed above, these techniques require more material (thermoplastics and others) and secondary operations associated with cutting, sewing, and assembling. Therefore, it would be beneficial to substitute the expensive materials with less expensive materials comprising impregnated thermoplastic members having the desired properties and to reduce the secondary operations associated with cutting, handling, sewing, and bonding of durable articles.